Saya Behnam

If you are in the mood to create a nature themed photo manipulation in Photoshop then we are here to help. Today Saya Behnam will be showing you how to take a few stock photos and turn it into a creative composition. The techniques used in this tutorial will be easy to understand for beginners through to moderate users, however some Photoshop knowledge is need and only then will you be guaranteed to learn something new. Let’s see what we need to get started and then dive right in.

Final Preview

Step 1

Time to create a new document for you to work on. If you plan on using this graphic for printing services then change the Color Mode to CMYK and 300 DPI resolution.

Step 2

Create a new group layer(CTRL+G and then CTRL+SHIFT+N OR Layer>New>Layer) name the group (BG) and import the image “Earth globe covered with grass) stock photo and scale it to fit the canvas.

Step 3

Create another group layer name it “letters” and start typing “COMING SOON” in upper case. Each letter in a separate group. The reason for splitting up the letters is because you will be editing each letter separately.

I used font “Palindrome Black SSi” Bold, 90 pt size. You can use any other fonts but it is better bulky and heavy face. With transform tool select each letter in their layer
Rotate or slightly transform each letter to match the curve of the earth

Step 4

In the “BG” background group – duplicate the “earth” photo. With Pen tool start to trace the earth (grass) out line. Skip the small grass hair, just follow the curve. In Path layer – Then select section

Step 5

Go to the second copy of the background, On the path layer select the path you just made and click “Selection” Under Select menu> Inverse and Got to Layer menu> Layer mask> Reveal selection- This time you have sky selection (don’t worry about small grass revealing, we will take care of it in next steps)

Step 6

Choose “Color balance” adjustment (from icons under layer window) and use following setting.

Create a new gradient adjustment layer with following settings for sky gradient fill:

Now for toning down clouds we use another gradient adjustment layer with these three colors for the top part of sky

If you want to make could darker you can use Burn tool with following setting on the clouds

You should have something like this now.

Step 7

Back to letters group: Go to “ C-main” group layer. Select C and with “Pen Tool” start to draw a jagged edges around the letter C- Make path in and out of the border of the letter to give it a rough edge.

Step 8

Now “Rasterize” the Type layer – by right clicking on the layer and selecting ‘Rasterize layer”. Duplicate this layer and name it C- Black –copy.

Step 9

Open the stock image earth globe covered with grass and with rectangle selection select part of the grass.

Back to the “ C-main” group layer and paste it on top of the other layers in the group name it “grass”. If need to transform and make it bigger, do it to cover the entire “C” letter. Go to layer window, Alt click between” grass” layer and rasterized C layer underneath it (if have not done it already) to create a “Clipping Mask” group- or while selecting “ Grass” layer go to Layer menu and click on “ Clipping mask.”

Step 10

Now choose the duplicated layer from C_main group, “C-black-copy” and with “move tool” move it to the right and down on the first layer. Now set this layer blending mode to “ Multiply” 47%. Open the “Dry soil texture” stock photo and select part of the image. Then come back to the “ C –main” group layer and past the layer under the “ C- black _copy”

Step 12

Copy the mask you created for letter “C” from above layers to this layer (soil image)
If you need to move or use Free Transform tool to adjust it, do it.

Step 13

To make the solid dry layer look more natural, click on layer mask choose white or black soft pen (opacity 47%) to add or erase to the mask within
On the “C-black _copy” to adjust it.

Also adjust the black shadow but erasing some area with soft brush opacity 20%

Step 14

To have more natural grass layer, with eraser and pen tool draw lines as for grass within grass clipping masks layers.

Now we give darker tone to the grass by selecting the grass image layer and go to Image menu and from Adjustment drop down select “Brightness and Contrast”

Now you should have something like this.

Step 15

Now that you have handled one letter, you have to repeat the process for all the letters in your composition. Once you have done so and added your own touch of creativity. You should have something like this.

Step 16

Make a group layer name it “Shadows”. From the letter group duplicate black layer for each letter and place in the Shadow group Choose “Prespective, Skew, Distort transform tool and adjust them on the ground.

-Change the blending mode to Multiply, opacity 37%

Step 17

Repeat the steps for each letter. Create the shadows with your initiative and style them as you would like by using the eraser tool, soft brush (size 39 – to 42) opacity 20% and randomly erase some areas from the shadow to give a grass natural tone.

Step 18

Open the “Dry Soil Texture” stock photo and insert it into the canvas. Place the layer in the BG group and on top of the other layers. We will be using it to create the soil level below the grass.

Select the Quick Mask Tool with the following Setup.

Start to paint the area you want to mask. From channel layers select selection tool for the alpha channel and turn off the Alpha channel. On the soil image layer go to Layer menu> Mask Layer> Reveal Selection

With pen and eraser tool draw or erase some part of grass root into the soil

Step 19

In the BG group add a new layer for adjustment on the grass shadow and with a soft brush (size form 32- 40 px)- use multiply for blending, 17% opacity and soft brush 32 to 40 px size- you can use this layer to add some touch up to the letter shadows as well -Use larger soft brush (60 px).

Step 20

Time to add some accessories. Open Tucan bird isolated stock photo and the yellow flower isolated stock photo and then open the two other pink flowers photos. Open Green leaf with water droplets photo as well and import the photos into your canvas. Now for the birds with Magic Wand tool select the background delete it and copy the bird on different place on top of the letter- Make them smaller with the free transform tool.

For yellow flower do the same above selection since it has the white background. For pink flowers- use quick mask and make selection copy and paste the flower to the group of your choice.

For Leaves, select them, transform and place them in different sizes and areas of the composition.

Step 21

You can change the color of the flowers by going to Image> Adjustment> Hue/Saturation with following settings.

Step 22

With brush tool (round hard brush size 20px or what you prefer) solid, 100% opacity, make different circles. Add a rectangle box with dusty color 8b7647 and 1d0705 randomly and mix these colors. Create a clipping mask tool above the circles and set the opacity of the group to 72% Normal.

Step 23

Add a new layer for adding some shadow adjustment to the Flowers and leaves group on the top- Set it to multiply and with soft brush opacity 17% black color add soft shadows if needed. Also to add some light and shadow to the grass you can use burn and dodge tool with following set up.
Now you are finally done. You need to be creative with your outcome and then you can add a brightness/contrast layer on top of the composition to balance out the lighting too.

Final Preview

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial. Please do share your outcomes with us. Would be appreciated.

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